BEIJING — The United States should meet one-on-one with North Korea to help revive stalled six-nation talks on the North’s nuclear program, a Chinese official was quoted as saying on Saturday.

“To restart negotiations and make progress, I hope Washington agrees to hold bilateral talks with Pyongyang,” said Yang Xiyu, director of the China Foreign Ministry’s Office for Korean Peninsula Issues, according to the China Daily.

Washington demands that North Korea give up its nuclear program and has rejected one-on-one talks, arguing that the problem is regional and requires a multinational settlement.

“While we speak directly with all the parties including North Korea at the six-party talks, we continue to believe that a multilateral approach is needed to resolve shared concerns about North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weapons,” said State Department spokeswoman Darla Jordan in Washington on Saturday. Three rounds of talks in Beijing involving the United States, the two Koreas, China, Japan and Russia have produced no major progress.

Pyongyang on Feb. 10 claimed that it had built nuclear weapons and would boycott talks indefinitely. The claim has not yet been verified.

U.S. and Chinese officials agreed Thursday to launch a new effort to lure the North back to talks.

“It is the common responsibility of all the six parties involved to prevent the escalation of the tense standoff and resume talks to address the nuclear issue at an early date,” Yang was quoted as saying.

Responding to suggestions that China use its leverage as the North’s main aid donor to force Pyongyang back to the bargaining table, Yang said sanctions would be futile, according to the China Daily.

“Even if China has some so-called leverage on the issue, we won’t abuse it since sanctions often pose new problems or cause collateral damage while failing to address what they are meant to achieve,” he was quoted as saying.